Electrical connectors have been provided in a wide variety of configurations for terminating multi-conductor cables, both discrete wire cables and integral flat or ribbon cables. With the ever-increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors and the ever-increasing numbers of wires in multi-conductor cables, electrical connectors of the character described have become increasingly complicated in order to accommodate relatively large numbers of conductors terminated in relatively small connectors.
Because of the miniaturization of such electrical connectors, extraneous connector hardware for facilitating assembly of the connector components practically has been made prohibitive, and assembly of the connectors often must be accomplished by interengageable and complementarily configured connector components which are assembled together by elements or parts of the components themselves fitting together in a fixed relationship in final assembly. This becomes very difficult to accomplish and still provide desirable features in the connector, such as guide means for the discrete wires, trimming the wires or conductors to appropriate lengths, isolating exposed ends of the conductors, providing strain relief for the cable as well as the conductors, providing ground connections for drain wires in the cable, providing reliable connections between the shielding components of the connector and other features which would appear to be impossible to incorporate in a single, small connector for a large number of conductors and respective terminals.
One of the problem areas in electrical connector assemblies described immediately above, is in the means for providing strain relief for the ribbon cable. Heretofore, the connector assembly generally has included a base assembly mounting a plurality of terminals, along with an elongated cover member holding the ribbon cable terminated against a rear face of the base assembly. A strain relief means is connected to the cover member and holds the ribbon cable at the rear of the cover member. Heretofore, a type of strain relief means has included a pair of interengageable elongated strain relief members for clamping the ribbon cable therebetween. At least one of the strain relief members has a flexible latch arm with a latch hook on the end thereof insertable into a latch opening in the other strain relief member. The latch arm flexes laterally and the latch hook snaps behind a latch shoulder on the other strain relief member when the pair of strain relief members are fully interengaged. At least one of the strain relief members has a rigid alignment element or arm insertable into an alignment passage in the other strain relief member to guide the pair of strain relief members into their fully engaged and latched positions.
The problem with the two-piece strain relief means described immediately above is that, during assembly, the rigid alignment arm guides the two strain relief members together and prevents any lateral movement between the strain relief members as the resilient latch arms flex and exert lateral forces between the strain relief members during assembly. These lateral forces create stresses in the strain relief members, require undue assembly forces and the rigid alignment arms and alignment passages are unduly large.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems by providing an improved system for assembling the strain relief members, considerably reducing the size of the rigid alignment arms and considerably reducing the assembly forces required during total assembly.